UCLA

Undergraduates

Undergraduate research assistant positions for credit are not available at this time.

Prospective Graduate Students – 2026-2027 admissions cycle

I can serve as primary advisor for a graduate student admitted through the Health Psychology Area for the 2026 – 2027 academic year.

Students *must* have specific interests in social relationships in one or more of three contexts:

• Chronic illness and biological aging. Social well-being (social support, social isolation) or romantic relationship functioning in the context of chronic illness. Importantly, mechanisms related to biological aging are of particular interest.
• Bereavement and grief. Rather than the loss of a specific relationship (e.g., spousal bereavement), we are interested in the accumulation of bereavement experiences over the lifecourse, their timing, and their impact on biological aging and health.
• Increasing new social connections or improving the quality of existing connections in university settings. As co-leader of the Engage Well Pod of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative, I’m working to translate research on increasing social connections to our campus, particularly for staff and students.

That’s it – I will not consider students who have interests outside these three domains, even if some of your interests overlap with some of my prior published research (e.g., parent-child relationships and health, etc.).

I can be a secondary mentor for students admitted in the Health Psychology area or other areas. In the past I have been a secondary or co-mentor for students admitted in the Clinical, Developmental, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Areas. While Clinical is my secondary area, students who are interested  being admitted through the Clinical area should review the research interests of faculty whose primary area is Clinical with an eye towards one of those faculty as the primary mentor.

For students applying from abroad (international students who are not US citizens, permanent residents, or DACA or AB540 holders), please note that our department carefully reviews our ability to offer a full funding package to cover 5 years in the program when considering applicants for admission. Funding packages for international students must include funds to cover non-resident tuition (currently $15,102 per year) after Year 1 and until advancement to candidacy (usually after 2-3 years). I do not have additional funding to cover non-resident student tuition after Year 1, so I can only consider international students that have secured funding from a guaranteed source, such as the Fulbright Foreign Student Program.